Following the reported death of a 12-year-old student at Chrisland School in Opebi-Ikeja, the Lagos State Ministry of Education has ordered the school’s temporary closure.
The closure was ordered pending the outcome of a full investigation into the unfortunate incident, according to a release signed by the state education commissioner, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo.
Mrs. Adefisayo expressed condolences to the parents of the deceased schoolgirl and prayed for her soul’s repose on behalf of the State Ministry of Education.
“We also note the impact of this unfortunate event on family, friends and acquaintance of Whytney and call for calm as we assure that no effort will be spared in investigating the incident,” the Commissioner stated.
Michael Adeniran, father of the deceased schoolgirl, earlier called for an investigation into his daughter’s death.
The 12-year-old girl’s father, Adeniran, said this in a Facebook post.
He said the deceased had no health condition or sickness at the time the school bus picked her up for the event.
Adeniran added that there was no explanation given to him and his wife by the school authorities regarding how their daughter died.
He said that his wife was present at the stadium, but the school did not call her attention to the incident immediately.
Adeniran subsequently called on the state government and the police to look into the matter and get justice for his daughter.
He asked why the school had no ambulance or paramedics at the event, except for a “quack” nurse whom he said confessed that the child died at the stadium.
“To the biggest shock of my life by 1 pm in the afternoon, I got a call from my wife that she was informed that our daughter slumped at the inter-house sport and she was rushed to the clinic….. My wife was at the venue even before the event started. She was never informed or called until they have conveyed our child out of the venue before they informed her.
“On arrival of my wife at the health center where they took my daughter, my daughter was lying dead with her lips black and her tongue black.
“My wife called me urgently, I left my office to the place and found my 12-year-old daughter lying dead on the ground. I asked questions about what happened to my daughter and the school authority could not get me any information as to what happened to my child in their care.
“I gave Chrisland school a healthy vibrant young girl what Chrisland returned to me is a dead child. My entire family is in deep sorrow but the school Authority claimed they know nothing about my daughter’s death and all they know is that my daughter slumped and died.
“My question is what happened to my daughter at Agege stadium? As a father, I demand answers from Chrisland International High School. I am in deep pain and sorrow right now. If you are a father you will understand my pain. My daughter is highly loved by us. We cherished her existence and we can never allow an institution to gloss over the death of our daughter.
“Since we started asking this question. The school has been asking us to back down from the autopsy and I know they know their way into the system. I am calling on the pathology department of @lasuth to please be honest with their result. Lagos State government, Nigerian Government, please intervene.”
The mother of the deceased girl, in a video, lamented that Whitney “was not taken to a hospital, she was taken to an immunisation centre”.
“But that is not even my pain, my pain is that there was no proper first aid management, there was no proper management, there was nothing that was done for her; she was brought to the hospital dead,” she said.
In 2022, a video depicting improper acts among some students of the school, who went for a trip to Dubai went viral.
The alleged scandal happened when Chrisland School students was in Dubai in March 2022 to take part in the World School Games, a four-day annual competition involving schools from across the world.
The development came less than four years after a teacher in the school, Adegboyega Adenekan, was convicted and sentenced to 60 years jail term for raping a two-year-old female pupil.